Solar Power for Home

[NotoriousRIE]

Does anyone have a solar energy kit installed on their home? I'm thinking about installing a grid tie system. In theory most months I should have no power bill and any excess energy is fed back into the grid earning a credit from the utility company. Super pricey up front, but energy bills add up over time and more importantly it's a greener way to live. By my estimate I need around 30-40 panels on the rear roof of the house. Just wondering if anyone has any tips or expierience with having this work done?

 

[RichnSteph]

How did you come up with that estimate for number of panels? My wife and I are going to go solar once our house is finished and we are using this http://www.wholesalesolar.com/StartHere/OFFGRID/OFFGRIDCalculator.html to determine how much power we'll need. After you figure out the minimum size you can start sourcing a kit or build one yourself.

Good luck!
RichnSteph

 

[Suckafish272]

We had a grid installed last year and turned it on last new years eve. So far we love it and are already building credits. My advice would be to do a good bit of shopping around. There's a lot of companies popping up that get you to sign the paperwork, collect their fee, and they then contract the work out to someone else. Ideally you can find that "someone else," and cut out the middleman fee. We were referred to a longtime San Diego commercial electric company that recently split off a residential branch. They were able to quote us $3000-$4000 less than the other companies and I believe its because they are buying the panels in bulk through their commercial branch. If you're looking into taking out a loan most companies will set up something where your monthly payment is still less than what you are paying every month for electricity.

There's probably a good bit of price difference between 30 and 40 panels so you'll want to find get a better idea of what exactly you need Out here, what you pay for a unit of electricity is a lot more than what the electric company pays you if you have extra units at the end of the billing period. So basically if you don't use all that you generate you're selling the electric company cheap electricity. Not cool as far as I'm concerned so the idea is to break even when the bill is due. Solar vendors try to figure what you need by taking a monthly average of your electric usage and determining the number of panels from that. It's best if you can give them 2 years worth of usage data. I'll stop before this gets long winded. Feel free to ask if you have more questions.

 

[NotoriousRIE]

I actually used that website. I estimated 30-40 by taking my average monthly kWh plus a bit extra with what a panel can produce based off 5 hrs of good sun. Most complete kits I've looked at on the whosale solar website for my energy requirements also have 35- 40 panels in them. I could probably get by with less, I'm sure the lesser months would even out the higher months, But I'd rather have extra power than not enough. I've gotten one quote so far from a local Ga company for around $34,000 installed which seems about right, but I'll definitely get extra quotes. I've read about a few people installing it themselves but it's not something I would be comfortable installing myself. I gave the company 1 year worth of data but 2 years worth would be nearly identical. And I definitely don't want to take out a loan. I typically cash or debit everything. Interest is just a waste to me. Thanks for the info. Do you have a battery back up as well in case the grid goes down? So you don't loose power? I was reading being tied into the grid you essentially still loose power if the grid goes down because it's unsafe for them to work on the lines if you are still feeding power into the grid. However, a backup battery installed will get you by while the grid is down and your solar panels shut down. I found this blog post pretty helpful that's where I got some of the info about loosing power.
http://gigaom.com/2012/11/11/one-year-with-solar-energy-at-home-mostly-sunny/

 

[Suckafish272]

Yes, the array no longer works if the power goes out. We didn't go for the backup battery. One of the sales reps said we could charge a couple cell phones with it and that was about it. We bought a generator instead to power the fridge and freezer in case power goes down. I've been told that in some states it's possible to have a switch installed that will essentially cut you off from the main grid so you can continue to use your solar panels if power goes out. This is assuming of course, that the power goes down during production hours which you will find out, isn't a very large percentage of the day. Installing this switch doesn't seem to be an option in CA.

 

[NotoriousRIE]

It didn't seem that important to me either. The power so rarely goes out. And never more than an hour maybe. The longest it's ever been out was 15 hrs this past winter during the huge ice storm we got in Atlanta, and no one needed a fridge then. It seems like a neat add on but most likely not worth the added price. I will look into the switch but again it may not be worth the added hassle.

 

[Suckafish272]

Good luck! We love sticking it to The Man and his ever increasing rates. I don't know if it's like this for you in GA but our power suppliers are really trying to alter their pricing structures so they can get more out of people who use their power the least. Those of us who already have solar will be grandfathered into the more favorable rates for a couple decades at least. People who wait to install solar arrays won't benefit as much as they'll be put into the new pricing structures.

 

[RichnSteph]

"Sticking it to The Man"... indeed!!!!

 

[wyoDreamer]

Who are you sticking it to, when you stick it to the man?
Yes, electric companies charge you more for the electricity than it costs them. And yes, you will get paid a lot less for any excess that you pump into the grid than they will charge you when you use more than you produce.
One thing may people don't consider is that the electric company must maintain and replace the distribution system. This is not paid for by the government, it is not covered by your taxes. They get this money from what they charge their customers. Take a look at what Lowes/Home Depot charges for a roll of wire if you need to do any wiring in your home. Now consider what they must have to pay for one of those huge spools of mega-wire to replace an old worn-out line running along your street, down the highway, across the state, to the plant creating the electricity. Now add all the transformers, power poles, staff and equipment that is needed to safely deliver it to your outlet.
One of the problems that some of the electric companies are having - especially small rural electrics - is the home solar systems hooking into their systems. Their grid is designed to deliver X amount of electricity and they must maintain a constant supply close to that amount. Then people with home grids hook on. Now they have an additional amount being pumped into the grid that they have to accept but cannot regulate. They cannot say that they have enough power in the grid we don't need any more. So they must add on the equipment to regulate how much electricity they are making at the electric plant. But the creation of electricity is not something they can turn on and off randomly. It takes a lot to turn off the processes that create electricity, and even longer to start that back up.

Sorry about the rant, guess you just touched a nerve.

Check out the estimated life-span of the system you are buying. Over time, solar panels become less efficient, so check out the info you are getting about your panels and see how fast they lose their efficiency. One of the things that I have heard is that by the time your system has "paid for itself", your solar system is "wore out" and will need to be repaired/replaced/upgraded.

I would like to get a solar system, but intend to get a battery based system where my power goes to charge my battery bank for my use. Maybe a grid tie for any extra, but that would depend completely on the policy of the local electric coop. But I only intend to live in rural areas if I can help it, and it is important to me to have power available even when the grid goes out. Our power lines here are getting old and brittle. Wind, freezing rain, and tree branches are taking out the power, which is entirely too common here. We have been without electric for hours to over a day at a time, many times a year in the last 7 years we have lived here. Instead of a solar grid, we have opted for a backup generator for the time being.

 

[RichnSteph]

Wow. Someone woke up on the wrong side of the coop. *laugh* Just kidding!

As far as how long the system will last. The system I am looking into comes with a 25 year reliability and efficiency warranty. So I guess it'll be good for at least 25 years.

As for it "paying for itself". I need a 5000 watt system to completely power my house, we'll remain "grid tied" for a few years until I get a battery system built and during that time any excess power we make is purchased by the local co-op. That system costs $8500 before taxes and install. Lets ball park $10,000 for total out of pocket from us to get the system bought (I have discounts through work), delivered (free) and installed (by a licensed contractor who works for the co-op). The co-op has a rebate program for new systems in which they pay home owners $2 a watt for power produced by the system as per system specs up to a total amount of $8,000. At the end of the year we can also use 30% of the cost of a new system as a federal tax deduction.

$10,000 out of pocket- $8,000 in rebate= $2,000

30% of $10,000 in tax deduction is $3,333 (not sure how that fits in, my CPA does all of that jazz)

Yearly electric cost is $1200 (rounded up)

$2000 (final buy in) - $1200 (no electric bill) = $800 (not counting what I might get back from the co-op from energy I provide them)

Now I'm not any good at math, at all, but it looks to me like my system is going to pay for itself in the first 2 years.

Please correct me if I'm wrong so that I don't make the mistake of buying this thing next month and getting it put installed.

RichnSteph